How Much Would You Pay . . . ?

Well, AI is the new gift that keeps on giving.

Heard about Personalized Pricing*? Nope? Neither had I until yesterday morning watching my new favorite news show, 5 THINGS. It's five high profile daily events in literally, like, five minutes.

THING #3 for Monday, July 22nd, 2024 was Personalized Pricing, a clever alliteration for what it really means: how companies are using AI to leverage customer pricing data to set prices and tender special offers based on an individual's "willingness" to pay. 

So, for example, my dad shops on Instacart, most often at Gelson's. Every purchase goes into the the database, so - following the Personalized Pricing plan -  the price point on his groceries would be higher than someone else who, say, shops at Gelson's infrequently or rarely gets the same thing. My dad's prices are inflated not because purveyor prices have gone up but because the end goal of the technology is to have shoppers spend more (sorry daddy, but it's true).

I watched this happen to me twice this week on two sites that I frequent weekly, at least.The canned Weruva LambBurgini cat food variety pack that I purchased from Chewy.com on July 5th for $16.10 went up to $19.49 while it was sitting in my cart five days later. Likewise on Amazon, my fancypants-low-sugar-low-carb-fat-free-tasteless-but-at-least-they're-dry cookies went up from $4.29 on July 12th to $5.99 on July 22nd.

Riddle me that, Batman.

I don't like it.  So much so that I'm contemplating doing a 30-day fast from online purchasing. Anyone who knows me knows that this is, indeed, a great sacrifice as there are few things I dislike as much as IRL shopping, pretty much of any kind. I hate price gouging even more, though, so it might be worth it. 

Stay tuned...

* Personalized Pricing: How To Ensure Top-Notch Customer Experience

 *AI is quietly being used to pick your pocket